Story+1984-10-29+Los+Angeles,+CA

”Thank you......here’s a.....song about when I was a kid, there was this.....house that kinda sat on a hill out on the outskirts of town.....and.....sometimes at night.....I remember my father used to sit in the kitchen.....at night the only lights on downstairs and the house would be like.....the light from the television and the light from his cigarette......and sometimes it’d get late, he’d say ‘You wanna take a ride ?’, we’d get in the car.....he’d always drive out.....out by this house and park.....by the side of the road.....he’d just kinda sit there, smoking a cigarette.....and in the day, me and my sister used to like run up to the gate, they had like, you know, watchman who’d come and chase us away.....he was real old and we’d run (?) (chuckles)(cheers)......but uh..... I don´t remember feeling like I was (?) inside or the outside (?)......”
 * 29.10.84 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Mansion on the Hill’:**

(after the singalong) ”Damn (crowd goes ‘Damn’) (chuckles)......Simon says......this is a song.... about history.....my personal history (cheers)......I’m talking National Enquirer kinda stuff......I’m in a confessional mood tonight.....when I was a kid .....before I’d get interested in the guitar.......there was only two things I wanted to be......wanted to be a pool player......and a lover (cheers).....now.....in my bedroom, one Christmas, my parents.....they got me a pool table.....they got it at Sears for 69.95.......and it just fit in my room......and I had my guitar up in my room......so like when I would bring my girlfriends home, I would say ‘Dad.......we’re gonna go up in my room and play pool (cheers).....or I’m gonna play my guitar’, you know......and my father.....sat in the kitchen.....my bedroom was right above the kitchen.....and if he didn’t hear the poolballs knocking around.....or if he didn’t hear the guitar playing .....he had a broom he’d bang on the ceiling (cheers)....but I got kinda slick, I’d pull the pooltable real over close to the bed......so I could kinda reach over ....and knock the balls around once in a while (cheers).....but anyway......I never got very good at pool......and I never got very good at.....but the guitar I became very proficient at......but as for the other......I’m still looking for some dedicated volunteers.....who will practise, practise, practise (cheers) .....anyway.....here’s a song about how all things must pass......and how in the end.... it ain’t nothing but glory days......”
 * 29.10.84 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Glory Days’:**

”(?) for all the old timers out there....thanks......oh.....this is uh.....tonight when you.... go out in the lobby, you’re gonna.....see some information about the......Steelworkers’ Old Timers Foodbank......and uh.....what they are, they´re the people that are busy out there feeding people.....who’ve fallen on hard times due to the plant closings that you’ve had here over the past three years......(?) steel plant closed down and U.S.Steel Plant.......General Motors......and a lot of times the only support system that.....they have to fall back on is the work....from the Steelworkers Old Timers Foodbank....... they’re out there trying to make.....for you, a better place to live (cheers)......and they could use you support, thank you......”
 * 29.10.84 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘The Promised Land’:**

”Thank you.....oh, back in.....guess it was around seventy.....78, I was.....I was passing through Phoenix, Arizona and I went into this drugstore.......and I found this book called Born on the Fourth of July.....and it was by this, uh......Vietnam Veteran named Ron Kovic......and it’s his story......this is a song about coming home.....it’s called ‘Shut out the Light’.....”
 * 29.10.84 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Shut Out the Light’:**

”Now, take it easy, boys.....now, way back......Re-creation day.....there was a terrible battle fought between the forces of good and the forces of evil.....now, on this side.... you had the devil and his boys and they were nasty.....on this side, you had the Lord and the Arch Angel......and when they came to devil, let me tell you they would wrestle.......now, the devil, he was mean and he fought dirty and he started to hit the Arch Angel down......but with one swift shot, Gabriel’s sword set the devil tumbling down to the darkness below (cheers).....and that was the beginning of conflict..... between worldly things and spiritual health......between the desires of the flesh (cheers).....and spiritual ecstasy......now the first place all of this played out......was in the Garden of Eden......now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located.....in the Middle East but the latest theological studies .....have found conclusive proof that its actual location.....was ten miles south of Jersey City off the New Jersey Turnpike (cheers)....now, understand in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living.....you didn’t have no Laundromat to (?) your clothes......you didn’t have a little bed you could crawl up in at night......there was no TV, you couldn’t go out on the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one....there was no sin.....there was no sex (boos).....man lived in a state of innocence.....now when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I live in (cheers).....but before the tour, I decided to make a spiritual journey.....to the location of the Garden of Eden....and I found out that it’s now occupied by Happy Dan’s Celebrity Used Car Lot....I walked in, the man says ‘Son......you need a yellow convertible , a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck , TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re driving all alone’ (cheers).... I said ‘I’ll take two’ (cheers)......I said ‘But, Dan, what I wanna know is when....when did all this conflict begin, why am I so pulled apart ?’, he said ‘Son, that’s easy..... you see because on the first day, God created the heavens and the Earth and He sat back and said ‘This is good’.....on the second day, He separated the light from the darkness and He called the light the day and He called the darkness the night and He sat back and said ‘This is good’....on the third day, He grew hungry so he created the hotdog and the Lord sat back and said ‘This is good’......on the fourth day, He grew bored so He created rock and roll (cheers).....and the Lord sat back and said ‘This is good’.... on the fifth day, He wanted to take a ride but he needed some highway so He created the L.A.Freeway (cheers)....and the Lord sat back and said ‘What.....is this ?’ (laughter).....then the weekend came down....and He needed some wheels and so He created the pink Cadillac......and the Lord sat back and said ‘This is wild’.....”
 * 29.10.84 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Pink Cadillac’:**

”I remember she’d be calling me ‘Bobby, Bobby’.....and I’d be running ‘round the house trying to find my keys.....’cause sometimes she’d hide ‘em because.....she didn’t want me going out (?).....and sometimes it was so hard to make her understand that..... when I took the car out and when I won.....that it was the only time I really felt good about myself.......and that.....to have just one thing that you do.....just one thing that makes you.....feel proud of yourself.....I don’t think that’s too much for anybody to ask......is it ?…. (….)That was the night we left......we don´t know where we’re going yet.....but I guess that’ll come in time......and as for this place.....there’s a lot we’ll always remember.....”
 * 29.10.84 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Racing in the Street’:**

”Thanks.....oh......I’d like to thank ......thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight, thank you very much (cheers).....and I’d like to thank your support of the Steelworkers’ Foodbank (?).....the idea was that everybody deserves a chance (cheers).....this is your town so you gotta fight for it......”
 * 29.10.84 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Born to Run’:**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//